Mickalene Thomas’ Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe: Les trois femmes noires centers three reposed black women, congregated amidst an intensely colorful, nigh-abstract environment.
The assemblage of various colors, patterns, and textures is loud, demanding its own space. It creates an environment of ease and of joy that the subjects radiate. Richard Powell describes this style of environment as “non-illusionistic and visually embellished.” It speaks through those embellishments, an insistent noise that centers a black female gaze.
Two aspects of Manet’s work stand out, both of which create stark divides between the men and women in the painting. First, the two women are either nude or barely clothed, while the two men are dressed in full dandy apparel. As with most female nudes, the inherent male gaze centers the female body as an object of desire. Additionally, despite the three main subjects sitting in a close arrangement, the two men distinctly ignore the woman in favor of talking to each other. These circumstances isolate the nude woman subject, separating her socially and centering her as an object of male desire.
These are circumstances that Thomas seeks to circumvent in her work. She is a strong proponent of supplanting the white male gaze with a black female one, and that context surrounds this modern take on a historically sexist piece. Thomas’ piece lacks the social separation, instead leveling the women, choosing not to privilege any one subject over another. The subjects also meet the eye of the viewer. Their gaze can be read as defiant. It can be read as prideful. Regardless, however, there is an assertive black female gaze that is both cast in the composition of this work and returned by the sitting subjects.
References
artincontext. 2022. “Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe – Looking at Manet’s “Luncheon on the Grass.”” artincontext. https://artincontext.org/le-dejeuner-sur-lherbe/. artincontext. https://artincontext.org/le-dejeuner-sur-lherbe/.
Powell, Richard J. 2021. Black Art: A Cultural History. N.p.: Thames and Hudson.
